I Am Statements Of Jesus - How Do Children Of Light Walk?
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Everything that we have and everything that we are is by the grace of God!
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- How do children of light walk? So you will notice in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8 it says,
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- For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the
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- Lord. Walk as children of light. Father I ask you to bless the preaching of your word.
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- Lord help me to speak with us, sayeth the Lord, and speak clearly with clear thoughts and mind and speech.
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- Lord as we look at this wonderful, wonderful sections of Scripture that we'll be looking at this morning,
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- Lord I just pray that more than anything your Son will be high and lifted up and glorified by the words that I speak, and that the people in this room will be sanctified by the preaching of the word of God, the living word of God.
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- And we thank you for it in Jesus' name, Amen. You'll notice it says, you were formerly darkness.
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- Notice it doesn't say you were formerly in darkness, although that is true, that we do reside in a sinful and fallen and dark world.
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- But no, Paul says you yourselves were formerly darkness.
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- Children of wrath, children of disobedience as Paul puts it often in the book of Ephesians.
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- Flip a couple chapters over to chapter 2 of the book of Ephesians. He says you were dead in trespasses and sins.
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- You weren't just needed something added to you. You didn't just need a little bit of a spark, or to find another champion inside of yourselves.
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- You were dead. I was dead. Dead people don't move. They don't revive themselves.
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- It took the grace and mercy of God to raise us to spiritual life. We ourselves were dead and formerly darkness.
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- He says in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
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- So that spirit, that devil, that sin, that darkness that was formerly who we are is children of wrath, sons of disobedience, enemies of God, hostile towards God.
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- It's still currently at work, and it's at work in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too, and see that's where he picks it right up, he says, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.
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- There's no neutral creatures. There's no, well are you given the right push, or the right circle?
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- No. There's no neutrality. You're either slaves of righteousness, slaves of Christ, or you're slaves of sin.
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- You're in that bondage. And you know we talk about the fact that and it was said in Sunday School the
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- Jewish people looking for the Gospel, the Kingdom, looking for their King because they want to be resurrected if you will, or taken out from under political bondage, or the bondage of a
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- Caesar, or a bondage of an oppressing people. But regardless of any of that the true need of the human heart, the true need of every single man, woman, boy, and child living today and that has ever lived is to be removed from, taken out from under, and be resurrected out of the bondage of the sinful heart.
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- The Old Testament says the heart is deceitfully wicked. Who can know it? There's no neutral creatures.
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- We're not just going along and something was done to us as if we're victims. We are the ones that are sinners.
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- We are the ones that have sinned against the Holy God and the Eternal God. And thus we deserve the very wrath that we incur upon ourselves.
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- But notice it says in verse 4, but God. It didn't say but man. It didn't say but us.
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- The only thing we contributed to our salvation with is the sin that God had to die for.
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- The sin that must be forgiven. But God, the one being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which
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- He loved us, even when we were yet dead in trespasses and sins.
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- Notice we didn't have to clean ourselves up first. There's nothing we could have done that anyway.
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- We were dead, right? But even in our dead, fallen state because of the grace and mercy of God, and because of His great love with which
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- He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ.
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- By grace you have been saved, and raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
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- So that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
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- For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
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- And notice He says, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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- We're not saved by good works, but we're created in Christ Jesus and saved for good works.
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- It's the fruit of our salvation. It's under the examination, or the examination of Scripture is that which proves us to be disciples of Christ.
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- And He created and prepared these beforehand so that we would walk in them. This means that Jesus not only prepared these things for us, but He expects that we would walk in them.
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- It is this darkness, it is this sinful capacity, it is this state that we found ourselves in because He says, you were formerly darkness.
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- But then notice He says, but now you, the same people that were formerly darkness, now you are light.
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- So, there's a change that's been made there. But notice it doesn't stop there. He doesn't say, you were light in the same way
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- He said you were darkness. He says, you are light in the Lord. So, therefore walk as children of light.
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- The light that we have in our salvation, the light that we have as Christians, the light that we should be demonstrating to a lost and dark world does not originate in ourselves.
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- Any light that we have for the gospel, for the Word of God, or for Jesus, or to show, shine forth out to lost people does not find its origin point in us.
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- He says, you're light, not because you were light, or not because you had the light and God just simply had to flip the switch on.
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- No, you're light because you're light in the Lord. And why is this?
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- Well, turn to John 8, verse 12. John 8, verse 12, then
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- Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows
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- Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
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- He says, I am the light of the world. I'm the eternally existent light of the world. Jesus Christ, the
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- Creator of the world which said, let there be light. The One that spoke creation into existence.
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- The One that the book of Colossians, when we went through that book it talked about everything holds together and finds its essence and its consistency and is upheld by the very
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- One that created it. That Jesus is the light of the world.
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- You ever try to walk around in darkness? We keep a light on in our house because I don't
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- I guess just maybe Gina likes having a light on, I don't know. But I'm thankful for that light because sometimes at night
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- I get thirsty and I have to go venture to my refrigerator and it would be a little hard stumbling through the dark.
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- Now with street lights and different things I don't know that we're ever completely in darkness. But if you were to somehow get into a room that had all the trappings, no windows, no nothing, and they turned all those lights out.
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- If you ever get down, anybody ever really been down into caves and places like that?
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- There's a lot of them out in Colorado and stuff and they'll do this trick where they turn out all the lights and you talk about darkness.
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- When you can't even see your hand in front of your face, that's dark. Now imagine if you were in this room and the lights are out and it's dark and they've strategically placed certain things in the room.
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- And you've got to walk around and fumble and find your way through this room to the door. A door that you don't know where it's at because it's dark.
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- That wouldn't be very easy. I would imagine that most of us if we made it out alive would probably have a few bumps and bruises.
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- But that's the same thing that lost people are doing. They're stumbling through this world in darkness.
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- And Jesus says, because I am the light of the world my children of light will not walk in that darkness but they'll walk in the light of me.
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- Which is why it's a sad state of affairs that any Christian would want to live their life for it is our light and it shines that light of the truth of scripture.
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- Christians and believers we worship in spirit and truth. We love the truth. We obey the truth.
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- We're committed to the truth. We'll sacrifice for it. We'll teach it to others.
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- We'll preach it. We'll live it. We're sanctified by the truth for what?
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- Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 17? He said, Father sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth.
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- He is our light. If you try to live life without the light of Jesus you'll stumble just like you would in that dark room.
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- The first thing you have to do when we ask this question, how do children of light walk?
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- Because you remember in Ephesians 5 it says you were formerly darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
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- The first thing we need to know in understanding how children of light walk is that number one, they know who the light is.
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- They know that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. It's not a question form. It's not something we have to figure out along the way.
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- We know it. Turn with me if you will to the book of John chapter 1 this time.
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- I would submit to you that if you've ever wanted to memorize Scripture, if you've ever thought about doing it, take the first 18 verses of the book of John and memorize them.
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- Commit them to memory. It's something I'm currently working on. I'm not there yet. I hope to be there one day because the prologue of John is some of the most beautiful Scripture we have.
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- It's one of the best Trinitarian references that we have. In the book of John chapter 1 the children of light know who the light is because the book of John tells us that in the beginning was the
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- Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. Now you're going to see some similar language.
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- He talks about us in Ephesians saying we are light and the Lord. You see this reference the fact of commonality and a connection between light and life and John does this a lot through his gospel.
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- And when he says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, what he's saying is as far back as you can push the beginning,
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- Jesus is already there. You can keep on. Now obviously time is a creation of God.
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- It's something He created for us. But if you could keep pushing time back, and pushing it back, and pushing it back, you will never reach a point where Jesus is not there.
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- He's the eternally existent One, the second person of the Trinity. We believe in one eternal being just as Deuteronomy 6, verse 4 tells us, hereo lives the
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- Lord, our God is one, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. But our
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- God, one eternal being exists in three distinct persons. And so many Christians trip over this because they have a lot of issues with categories, and they make category errors.
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- They don't understand the difference between being and person. And of course that's a sermon for another day. But we worship one eternal
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- God. We don't worship three gods. We're not polytheistic. We worship one God, one eternal being existing in three distinct persons.
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- It says He was in the beginning with God. But then He shifts, John shifts in verse 3 and uses a different word, and he says, all things came into being through Him.
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- So this Jesus, this Light of the world, the One in which the children of light know who this Light is, worships a
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- God that everything that's not God does have a creation point.
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- A point in time where it became, or came into existence. All things came into being through Him.
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- Which means without Jesus Christ nothing has came into being which has come into being. The sun, the moon, the stars, you and me, everything that is in existence, everything that is part of the created order has a point in time that you can go back to as the beginning of it.
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- But Jesus Christ, this Light does not have that. Then notice it says, in Him, in this
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- Word, the Word of the book of John, in Him was Life, and the Life was the
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- Light of men. Notice how John uses these two words almost interchangeably to a degree.
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- John the writer will go on to identify the fact that this Word he's talking about is in fact
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- Jesus Christ. And he equates this Word with Life. Now when you see that word Life used in the book of John, it's just not simply referencing physical life, although there is a word that is used in Scripture to reference physical life.
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- But when he uses the word Life here he's talking about spiritual life. Why would anybody need spiritual life?
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- Well you remember Ephesians chapter 2? We're all dead in trespasses and sin. Ephesians 5 .8, you're formerly darkness.
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- You're walking around in darkness. You're stumbling through the darkness. You're in sin. You're in trespasses.
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- You're in bondage. You're a slave to that sin. You're in bondage to it. You need spiritual life because it's only through spiritual life that you can overcome spiritual death.
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- It's in Him was Life. And that life, that internal life of Jesus is the
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- Light of men. So he equates the Life of Jesus with the Light of men because Jesus Himself said,
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- I am the Light of the world. John 3 .16, obviously one of the most treasured verses in the
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- Bible when it talks about the fact that those that are the believing ones will have as a current possession eternal life, everlasting life.
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- It's not just talking about life in the sense of forever, in the sense of time, but life in terms of quality.
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- It's a type of life. It's a qualitative life. It's an eternal life. It's a life that not only did not have a beginning but has no end.
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- Because that life is wrapped up in the eternal being that has no beginning or end, the Alpha and Omega.
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- It is that God that we worship. And notice he says that life of Jesus Christ, the eternal life of Christ, the eternal life of God, the very righteousness of God having come down from Heaven, this life is the
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- Light of men and that Light shines in the darkness. The very darkness that we ourselves are in sin, the very darkness of this world that Satan controls, that Light shines in that darkness.
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- If you were in the same room I was talking about earlier with no windows, no light, no nothing,
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- I mean you can't see nothing, but if you were to take something just as small as one of these candles, light up the whole room.
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- There is no scenario. There's no possibility of darkness ever overcoming light.
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- You won't find it. As long as there's light you can't have perfect darkness.
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- No matter how small that light is it will always overcome darkness. Notice it says the
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- Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it or overcome it, more literally rendered.
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- It can't overcome it. Why? Because it's Light. Light shines in darkness. Light illumines darkness.
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- Light overcomes darkness. And it is this Light of the Savior Jesus Christ, the
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- Light of the world that shines into the dark world of sin and trespasses, lights it up through shining through us to light and shine out there to a lost and dying world that they need the same
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- Light that we have because we know who the Light is. The Light is
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- God Jesus Christ. Notice it says in verse 10 of chapter 1 in John it says,
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- He was in the world and the world was made through Him and the world did not know Him. Darkness and light have nothing to do with each other.
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- They're always at war. Darkness wants to overtake light but it can't because light always overcomes darkness.
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- You can't mix the two. You have rooms.
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- You have places where you may have a portion of light, a portion of darkness, but it doesn't mean they're existing together.
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- They're always trying to overtake the other one. And God was in this world that He made.
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- It says He didn't know Him. He came to His own, His own people. And those who were
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- His own did not receive Him, but as many as received Him, to them
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- He gave the right, or the authority, to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name.
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- See we commonly talk about everybody being a child of God. It's not true. It's not biblical. There is a sense in which we are quote, unquote children of God in the sense that we are all created beings of God.
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- God has created all of us. But the Bible is very clear that the actual children of God, those who have been adopted into the family of God are only those who have been saved by grace through faith.
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- It is at the point in salvation when you are adopted into that family. That's why it said, while there were some that rejected
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- Him, while there were some He went to that were even His own, and they rejected Him, it says despite that, despite the fact that not every single person will come to Him and receive
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- Him, those that do are now given the right to become the children of God.
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- So, we're not born the children of God, you become the children of God. You are adopted. It's the doctrine of adoption in the
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- Bible. You are adopted into the family of God. Hence in Ephesians chapter 5 it talks about you were children of light.
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- Formerly darkness, becoming children of light. Formerly in sin, sons of God, daughters of God.
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- And these children of God, notice it says they were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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- Remember Nicodemus? John chapter 3? It says you must be born again.
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- Nicodemus is like, what in the world are you talking about? I have to go back into my mother's womb? Have you done the physics?
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- It won't work. Jesus said, you're missing the point Nicodemus. I'm not saying you need to be born again physically, but you need to be born from above.
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- Those that are Christians, those that are children of light, those that are children of God have two births.
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- One of physical, one of spiritual. One of water in the physical birth, and one of the spirit.
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- Those that are children of light, those that have the very light of the world living in and through them have been born of God.
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- The origin point of our spiritual life is the very life of Jesus Christ where it says, in Him was life.
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- And that life is the light of everything that we have.
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- Everything that we are is by the grace of God, the mercy of God, the life of God, the light of God.
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- Don't ever make the mistake of thinking anything in your Christian life has anything to do with you. The only thing we contributed was the sin that made the cross necessary.
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- The very Christian life that we live, the workmanship of Ephesians 2 .10, the righteousness that we produce still isn't ours, it's
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- God's. Philippians 3 .9 -10 where He talks about is through faith that you have the righteousness of God.
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- Do we found in Him not having a righteousness of my own but the very righteousness of God on the basis of faith?
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- Because we're born of God. You're children, you're heirs. We're going to inherit it all.
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- What little bit we may have in this life doesn't even come close to comparing what we're going to have in the next.
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- That's why when I'm preaching to myself we need to stop being so focused on what we don't have or all this sin of discontent that we all struggle with.
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- It's hard, trust me. Contentment is a hard thing. This is the point in time where you're supposed to say, amen.
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- Where are my amen sign holders? Y 'all got them? They trip me out, man. Wednesday night
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- I'm sitting there talking and they just hold up these signs and say amen. I'm like, man, y 'all are my kind of people. This is cool. Yeah, that's the point in time where you're supposed to say amen because contentment's hard.
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- If any of you don't struggle with it, I want you to come counsel me. I'll sit on the couch, you can sit behind my desk and I'll learn from you because that's what
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- I struggle with. That's why when we talked about it on Wednesday night, those of you that were there, you remember when we were talking about dedication and commitment and talent and all these different things, it weren't about what you do and I kept poking and prodding and pushing you because I was trying to get you to the point of understanding that these things that we do, the works that we do, all that's righteous, it's all great, and it's all well and good, but it really doesn't come, when it comes right down to it it doesn't matter what you do or what you don't do, you're dedicated to God because of who
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- He is. We're dedicated to God because of just simply who He is because we will be fully satisfied in Him.
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- And if you're completely dedicated to God and completely and fully satisfied in Him and Him alone, guess what you'll do?
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- You'll walk as children of light. You'll walk as children of light. You'll desire it.
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- You'll want it. Verse 14 of chapter 1 of John, the
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- Word, the same Word that we've already identified as Jesus Christ, identified as life, identified as the
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- Light, this God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who is the Creator, the Pre -existent One, not created,
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- He's God Eternal, this Word became flesh. Same Word from verse number 3 talking about all things that came into being were through Him, and nothing came into being or everything that has come into being could not have came into being if it hadn't been for Jesus Christ.
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- Same understanding here. He took on flesh at a point in time. See? Jesus Christ is eternally
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- God, but He hasn't been eternally human. He took on human flesh.
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- He added human flesh to His deity to where now He's 100 % God and 100 % man.
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- Try to figure that one out, good luck. But they don't believe it because that's what the Bible says. Eternally God, not eternally, but now that He's resurrected and has ascended
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- He will be eternally the God -man. From this point forward He will always be
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- God and man. He has His glorified body. But there was a point in time where He added flesh.
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- He says the Word became flesh. And dwelt, Greek word meaning tabernacled, dwelt among us, tabernacled among us.
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- We saw His glory. Man, can you imagine? Think about this. The God of the universe veiled and encased in human flesh and yet they still saw
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- His glory. Now imagine seeing
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- Jesus Christ face -to -face in all of His glory. That's why the book of Isaiah and the book of Revelation tells us that in the eternal state you're not going to need any light bulbs.
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- You're not going to need the sun. You're not going to need any other light source.
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- Because the literal source of light of the universe, the eternal light of the world will be all the light you're going to need for all of eternity.
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- And those that have not placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ will never see that light. There will be an outer darkness, gnashing of teeth, lake of fire, hell.
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- And despite well -meaning people that say this, and I get it because I used to think it too, but it's actually not biblical. They talk about hell being separation from God.
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- It's not true! You're not separated from God in hell. God's there in judgment. Now they won't experience
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- God in the same way we do, or that we will as His children in eternity, but they'll still be the presence of God.
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- God is omnipresent. He's all places all the time. He's all -powerful, all -knowing. He's not going to cease to be in a particular location just because it's hell and sin.
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- He will be there in some capacity, in some way in judgment. And they will have to look upon the
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- Savior that they spat on His face and rejected Him and told Him, I don't want You in my life.
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- I want to be the authority. I don't want to submit to Your Word. I want to be the charge. I want to be God. God says, go ahead and have it in this life because one day you're going to be in hell.
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- And when you are I'm going to be there in judgment and you're going to be reminded every single day for all eternity that you rejected the literal
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- Word of God, the literal life of God, the light of God, the Word become flesh. If you have family members, you have people in your life that think or believe that or don't want to believe in Jesus, what are you waiting for?
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- There's no other breath guaranteed to them. You better start telling them. Ray brought out another good point.
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- Ray, I'm going to sing your praises this morning. I had to be in Ray's Sunday School class. He brought out another good point.
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- He talked about relational evangelism. It doesn't mean you go out there and beat on everybody's head and start stomping on them and say, well you better believe in Jesus.
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- Well yeah, there is a point in time where a confrontation is necessary. People have to be confronted with the fact that they've rejected an
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- Almighty God, and if enough to themselves they will die in Hell. But there's relational evangelism.
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- You've got to get to know people. They've got to get a place where they'll trust you enough to talk to you about those things. So you can't just go jumping all down their throat.
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- You've got to give them a chance. And he talked about there's seasons. There's a seasons you go through in relational evangelism when you get to that point.
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- And Paul talks about this. Some plants, some water, some harvest. We know who that light is.
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- Number two, they reject the darkness. Children of light reject the darkness.
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- Now these last two points we're not going to belabor like the first one there, so we'll move quicker through these last two.
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- But number two, they do reject the darkness. Going back to Ephesians chapter 5 notice it says, you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the
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- Lord. Walk as children of light. Formerly darkness. You'll remember from Ephesians chapter 2
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- Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2 it says, you formerly walked according to the course of this world. You formerly lived in the lust of your flesh and indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath.
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- Formerly darkness, now light in the Lord. We are to reject the darkness.
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- Turn with me to the book of 1 John, another one of my favorite books, and another book that you can do a lot of good memorizing in.
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- But the book of 1 John, notice he says in verse 5 of chapter 1, he said, this is the message we have heard from Him.
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- Who's to Him? Jesus Christ. We're not going to read the verses for time's sake, but he says, that which was from the beginning that we've heard, we've touched, we're eyewitnesses of.
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- He said, that's the life and the light of men. He says, this is the message we heard from Him and announced to you that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness.
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- And he says, if you say that you have fellowship with Him, or you profess to be in Him and walk in the darkness, you're a liar.
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- We lie and we do not practice the truth. Remember because he said, you are light in the
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- Lord, Ephesians chapter 5, for the fruit of the light, verse 9, consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
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- The fruit of the light. We commonly think of the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians chapter 5, but the fruit of the light.
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- What's the fruit of the light of the world? Jesus Christ living in you? Goodness and righteousness and truth, because we are sanctified by the truth of the
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- Word of God, which causes us to walk in goodness and righteousness. Notice verse 10, trying to learn what is pleasing to the
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- Lord. And we'll go back to that on our third point.
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- But notice he says, if you're walking in darkness you lie. What are you lying about? You being in Christ.
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- He says, you walk in darkness, you walk in what you formerly were, you're lying. You may profess openly, but you're not really saved, you're not really converted, you're not really having the light of the world shining in you.
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- Now obviously this doesn't mean sinless perfection in this life, because we reside in simple humanist, complete other sermon for another day, but it does mean that you will walk in that light.
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- And lastly, number three. Number three, they pursue the light. So, the children of light not only know what the light is, they reject the darkness, but they actively pursue that light.
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- So, let's go back to where we just were. Verse 10, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. This implies effort.
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- It implies intentionality. The Christian life is not something you do from the sidelines, or do in the passenger seat.
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- The Lord knows you don't need the back seat drivers, we don't like them, right? It ain't done for the passenger seat, but you're also not in the driver's seat.
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- So like, where are we? You're still in the car, but it's an active passenger.
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- I really need a better example than that, because God's still steering the car, and we're going along with Him.
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- You can't just be passive. You can't just be reserved. You can't just say, well, you know, after all
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- God's the one that saved me, I'm born of God, it's His light living in me, I don't really need to do anything. No. Out of the love we have for our
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- Savior, the Savior that loved us and saved us, we'll try to learn what is pleasing to the
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- Lord. How do you do that? Pursue the light. Pursue Jesus. Pursue Him in His Word.
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- Understand the Word of God. Submit to the Word of God. Obey the Word of God. Love the Word of God. Worship God. Worship in spirit and in truth.
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- Why? Because we want to know what's pleasing to our Lord. We don't just want to be saved by the light of the world.
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- We want to walk in, get to know, and live like the light.
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- So he says, do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them.
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- Which brings us to our last stop this morning, John chapter 3. And this is where we will end up this morning.
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- And no, we're not going to look at verse 16, although that is a very wonderful verse, obviously. But we're going to go past that and look at verse 19, 20, and 21 as we wrap up.
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- Why do we need to pursue the light? Why do we want to not participate in the deeds of darkness, but expose them? It says, this is the judgment, verse 19, that the light, the light, the light of the world,
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- Jesus Christ has come into the world. The Word became flesh.
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- And men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. You ever stop back some time and say,
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- I don't understand why this particular person in my life or my family doesn't get it. Why don't they get it?
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- Why are they so closed minded? Why do they not see the truth of Scripture? Why do they not see their need for a
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- Savior? They love darkness rather than light. There's no neutral creatures. There's no victims.
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- They're active hostility. They love their darkness. They love their sin. And if it weren't for the grace and mercy of God, they'd die in their sin.
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- That's why they need to know about the Savior. And why do they love the darkness rather than the light?
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- Because their deeds are evil. Why? Verse 20, for everyone who does evil hates the light. Forgive me for the superhero reference, and no we're not going to Superman.
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- Does Batman go out during the day? Anybody? When does
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- Batman go out and fight criminals like Harley Quinn, the Joker, Two -Face? At night.
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- Why does he have to go out at night? Because that's when the who gets to working.
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- Criminals. Justice needs to come at night because criminal activity happens mostly at night.
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- Now why would criminals want to operate at night? Because it's in darkness, my friend
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- Jerry. It's in darkness. There's a lot less likelihood you're going to see them.
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- It's a lot more higher likelihood that if you are about to get caught, you're going to get away with it.
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- Sin loves darkness. It loves secrecy. It loves to be behind the doors and behind the walls because if it comes to the light, the light of Scripture will expose its darkness.
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- That's why evil hates the light. It does not come to the light. Notice for fear that His deeds will be exposed.
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- Remember it said you were formerly darkness, but now you're light in the
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- Lord. You're going to see the same thing right here in just a minute. It says if you're in darkness and you hate the light and you don't want to come to the light, why?
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- Because it's your deeds that are going to be exposed. One of the best things Christians can do in their life, one of the best things churches can do in a church's life is to eradicate all forms of secrecy.
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- Eradicate all forms of behind closed door things. Get things out.
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- Let the light of Scripture see it. Let the light of Scripture deal with it. Let the light of Scripture convict it and change it and sanctify it and work in it.
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- And notice He says, but he who practices the truth, the one who is a children of light pursuing the light, they come to the light.
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- Why? So that His deeds may be exposed? No, that isn't what it says, is it?
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- So that His deeds may be manifested as having been brought in God.
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- My friends, no one that is a Christian that pursues the light, that has the light of the world living in them, no
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- Christian comes to the light so that they can be seen, so that their deeds can be glorified.
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- We come to the light so we can show that our deeds are wrought in God. It's by the grace and mercy of God for we are
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- His workmanship. And we want people to see the glory of God. The same grace and mercy that saved us.
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- The same grace and mercy and light that produces righteousness in us. We come to the light meaning we come to the
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- Word. We come to the truth of Scripture. We come out from the darkness. We walk in the light. We walk in truth.
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- Why? Because we want the world to see that what we're doing has nothing to do with us, but it's wrought in God.
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- Its origin point is God. So my friends, be children of light because if you're in Christ, if you're in the
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- Lord, if you've been saved by the grace and mercy of God, you're a child of God. You're a child of God and you are a children or a child of light.
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- And then go on and pursue the light and make every effort in your daily life to learn what is pleasing to your